This post will challenge some of the stereotypes you have come to rely on as truth. It will portray as truth something that has long been thought false. I'm going to shake the earth with this one.
I, as a straight male (no, that's not the revelation), love to dance. For centuries the straight male has been portrayed as a wallflower, too cool to shake his tail feather (I said it) on the hardwood floor. I think it was Dane Cook who said you never see guys saying, "Fuck girls tonight, I just want to dance." While it's true that I would never turn down a female in order to dance, the truth is I would probably bring her with and we could enjoy our time busting move after move until the sweat pouring off our skin didn't matter anymore.
Those who know me know that if they play anything that could be considered danceable music around me, they run the risk of me making a complete fool of myself in the middle of their dorm room/makeshift discotheque. It's something that happens quite often in my life, and I wouldn't want it any other way.
As with most broken stereotypes, I am not claiming that this is the same for every male. Many of my friends don't get the thrill out of instrumented tomfoolery as I do, and that's fine for them. I would never dream of claiming that they were any less in touch with their feelings than I am, they simply don't enjoy the same things I do. Shockingly, it turns out everyone has different hobbies.
I want to clarify that I am in no way, shape, or form an even somewhat decent dancer. I am spastic, uncontrollable, energetic, and absolutely insane when the tune catches me, as I'm sure some of you have witnessed. I can't keep it in me. (That's what she said.)
I was thinking about my high school experience in the Twin Cities alt/punk scene. Otte and I would hit up concerts, sometimes on a weekly basis, and I would always end up in the middle of a mosh pit getting absolutely thrashed and feeling that sense of connection with the music. Otte was always a bit more sensible than I, but I remember him joining in more than once. Grinaldo was always in those messes too. I could (and very well may) do an entire post just on our teenage concert stories. Good times.
Anyway, I remember the first time Otte and I went to a show and decided, a couple bands in, to move towards the back. I believe one of us may have even said, "We're too old for this." It was true, this wasn't how we wanted to enjoy the music anymore. It makes me laugh that I've grown from moshing at punk shows to undulating sporadically to eighties music and top forty hip hop. I have no shame.
All this comes because I've had "Africa" by Toto stuck in my head all day. I blame Grinaldo for that youtube video he showed me (see below), as well for Scrubs for featuring the track in one of the, I don't know, probably four episodes I tuned into today.
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2 comments:
Looking back I think we became more selective with our movement. You read my post regarding the dance party we threw: I didn't really stop dancing all night. Additionally, when I saw Thrice last fall I definitely threw down a little bit in the mosh pit. That was partly for nostalgia and partly because they were absolutely rocking the shit out of me.
We got older, yes, and moshing became something that reminded us of our "youth." (That's funny in and of itself considering it was a mere three years ago.) The thing is, a lot of growing up is done in high school and we went through that together. These days we move in much more selective, but no less energetic ways.
Keep on being shameless.
Also, I don't know if I love or hate that you actually wrote down a that's-what-she-said.
I'm leaning toward love, but no guarantees.
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